The effects of multimodal texts on science reading comprehension in Chilean fifth-graders: text scaffolding and comprehension skills

ABSTRACT

Reading comprehension is a crucial skill that elementary school students must develop in order to learn science. However, there is not yet enough research about the role that multimodal texts play in scaffolding student reading comprehension of complex scientific processes, such as energy transfer. This study explored how verbal and visual resources (scaffolding level) and individual differences (reading skills) contribute to science reading comprehension. One-hundred and sixty Chilean fifth-graders were assessed on reading skills, vocabulary, and prior science knowledge. A counterbalanced design was used to test two groups: Group 1 reads a text with low multimodal scaffolding and Group 2 reads a text with high multimodal scaffolding. Level of text scaffolding was determined by (1) image function, (2) visual-verbal relations, (3) presence of an explicit explanatory structure, and (4) lexico-grammatical resources. General monomodal and multimodal science reading comprehension were assessed with multiple-choice tests. An ANCOVA analysis revealed non-significant differences between groups after controlling for prior knowledge, fluency, and vocabulary. Likewise, a two-factor ANCOVA analysis showed that the high-multimodal scaffolding text significantly boosted science reading comprehension for low-skilled comprehenders. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for pedagogy and research, aiming to foster multimodal literacy for learning in content areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading comprehension
• multimodal literacy
• scientific literacy
• science learning
• image function
• explanatory texts
• lexico-grammatical resources

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicerrectoría de Investigación under Grant VRI Interdisciplina 27/2013 and under Grant Proyecto Basal de Centros de Investigación Interdisciplinaria. The authors would like to thank Ricardo Rosas and Lorena Medina, co-PIs on the first project, María Paz Ramírez for data collection, and Alejandra Guajardo, Francisca Vizcaya, and Ivannia Hormazábal, research assistants, for their contributions to this research. Finally, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the students, teachers, and principals who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Alejandra Meneses http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6563-5117

José-Pablo Escobar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9749-0285

Soledad Véliz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7143-420X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicerrectoría de Investigación (VRI) under Grant VRI Interdisciplina 27/2013 and under Grant Proyecto Basal de Centros de Investigación Interdisciplinaria.